Nigeria: Extractive Sector undergoing Validation

​The Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative says Nigeria is among 15 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative implementing countries that will be validated this year. The Executive Secretary, Waziri Adio stated that validation is a quality assurance mechanism put in place to keep EITI-implementing countries on track.

He said: “As part of our international obligations, we go through a process called validation. It is a quality assurance mechanism to make sure that they stay on track; Nigeria is one of the 15 EITI implementing countries due for validation this year.

Nigeria, in 2003, voluntarily signed up to this commitment. So what they want to look at is how Nigeria is faithfully implementing this commitment.”

Adio said a mission would be in Nigeria soon on a 10-day visit to ascertain the country’s commitment to implementing the initiative. “They will talk to us; they will talk to all the stakeholders involved in extractive industry transparency issues in the country. These will include the civil society, the companies, and government agencies. So we want to also use this opportunity to flag that and we are very convinced that Nigeria will come up tops because we have always been pushing the boundaries.”

The executive secretary said stakeholders in the industry had already been informed about the visit, stressing the need for Nigerians accord the team their maximum support.